A Boulder man is facing animal cruelty charges after passersby told police he was punching his pit bull in a grocery store parking lot Monday.

According to an arrest report, Boulder police responded to a report of a man beating a dog in the parking lot of King Soopers, 3600 Table Mesa Drive, around 9:30 a.m. Monday.

Several witnesses told police that a man -- later identified as William D. Sawyer, 32 -- dragged a dog out of the King Soopers store by the scruff of its neck, threw it into an Aerostar van in the parking lot and punched the dog, which was cowering and trembling, according to the report.

Sawyer's girlfriend, Theresa Dance, 37, told police the dog, a brown pit bull named Hercules, had jumped out of a "busted" window in the van and followed them into the store. Asked why one of them didn't just wait with the dog, she said they should have done that, the report said.

Police said Sawyer was belligerent and cursed at officers. Sawyer was booked into the Boulder County Jail on suspicion of animal cruelty. He remains in jail on $2,500 bond and is scheduled to be charged Thursday.

Sawyer was placed in isolation at the jail because he threatened to get into fights and banged his head on the wall, police said.

Court records show that Sawyer has a long history of arrests on drug and other charges. He is on probation for obstructing an officer in relation to a disturbance in May.

Dance was arrested on an outstanding warrant related to a theft by receiving charge.

The dog was taken to the Humane Society of Boulder Valley. According to the police report, the dog did not have obvious injuries, but he appeared unstable -- sometimes calm and sometimes tense.

Spokeswoman Kim Sporrer said the Humane Society currently is holding the dog on behalf of animal-control officers while the case remains under investigation. She said it was too soon to know what will happen to the pit bull.

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